The diary of a white girl in Arabia

Cups And All

Judging by my silence, you would probably be led to believe that I had reached my goal of 500 posts and then brushed my hands free from the dust of discarded letters and dangling modifiers. That, however, is not the case. I have many goals, one being the continuation of entertaining you with my thoughts, but the second and not lesser goal, is to drink a nice cup of tea at the desert-Drake hotel.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had been on a date with my girlfriend-that-is-now-far-away to chat and say our farewells in the classiest way we could muster. I had toyed with the idea of bringing my own thermos of tea to the hotel, but chickened out at the last minute (well, in the last hour because it does take more than a minute to make really good tea). While we were sitting on the outdoor deck, enjoying the view, relaxing and chatting, I began to regret my decision to back out of my little-bit-maybe-aeb plan. I vowed to myself that I would make it happen. I would have tea at the desert-Drake if it was the last thing I did.

Not too long after, another opportunity for my brazen plan presented itself to me. On just the day that I needed it, another girlfriend and I went up to the hotel to let our girls play on the playground while we enjoyed each other’s company and some snacks. This time, I would not let my nerves win out. Wearing my masha’Allah scarf, I walked confidently into the hotel holding my thermos by its handle at my side. My posture was strong, my countenance was secure, and we walked through the lobby like we owned the place. Settling ourselves into our chairs on the terrace while the girls ran to begin their playground adventures, I thought to myself, “So far so good!”

Not a hint of trouble was detected when the waiter took our order (2 plates of fries, two freshly squeezed lime juices, and hummus plate with bread basket) and I asked for the addition of two tea cups for our tea. “You want tea?” I replied in the negative and added, “I brought my own tea.” He didn’t even bat an eye, turned on his heel in purpose of fulfilling our order. Ages and ages passed before the food was delivered to our table by a second waiter. We didn’t, initially, think anything of it as there really isn’t a server-protocol in the desert-Drake, let alone server-consistency. When he had unloaded his tray with all our desired goods, I noticed the lack of empty tea cups and we again requested them. Then, came the shocker.

“I can not give you empty cups. This is a hotel.”

Now it was clear why the waiter had changed. The first one was too intimidated by me to deliver the negative news.

Can you believe that when this negative news was finally delivered, that I was so shocked absolutely no words came out? I acquiesced to his “rule” – as if there ARE rules in the desert these days. I may have sputtered and stuttered along with my “Okay, then, can we have 2 bottles of water?” And all this while wearing my bedazzled, masha’Allah headscarf! The wind blew, the fries grew cold, my girlfriend began to shiver, and all along we had a perfectly good thermos filled with delicious tea at our side without any cups from which to drink it. It was injustice in its rawest form. It’s not like the hotel has decent tea on offer and I’m stealing business from them. Their version of “tea” is a pot of hot water with a tea bag (gasp!) and a side mini-pitcher of cold milk and a can of sugar packets. This isn’t IHOP, people! I want tea. I want good desert tea since I’m in the freaking desert. I have to deal with all the rotten things of the place, I should at least get to enjoy the great things at my leisure and demand.

The longer we sat, the longer I stewed over my future plans. Next time. Next time! I will bring my own cups!! Who can stop me then? Who? The manager? Just try it, mister. Because next time, I’ll have my speech prepared and worked up. I’ll go into a tirade about substandard tea in the land of the greatest tea known to man. I will tell them that until they start providing a quality product, I will drink my own tea because I want GOOD tea to go along with the delicious snacks and spectacular view. I want the complete package, and if I have to complete it myself then I will. Cups and all.

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18 thoughts on “Cups And All”

OMG Can I Please be there to witness that!!? Or maybe the next chance I have to go, I’ll also bring my own tea, and cups, to begin the tea revolution. Now I have to go learn how to make good tea… I’m fully supporting this!

Should have asked for some bowls and then drank the tea from them. Or perhaps they can’t give you empty bowls, either?

You know what would be fun? You know those squeeky “AWOOOGA!” type horns that they had on old-fashioned cars? With the little black rubber bulb squeezy thing to make the noise?

What if you brought one of those, and then whenever the server says anything, you squeek it. So it would go something like this:

You: “I’m sorry, but it looks like you forgot to bring our teacups.”

Server: “I’m”-HOOOOOOOONK!

Server: …??

You: (Repeat) “I’m said, it looks like you forgot to bring our teacups.”

Server: “Sor”-HOOOOOOOONK!

You see how much fun that would be? And then you would also have the excellent side benefit of atracting the attention of the entire hotel to your situation, and I’ll bet the hotel will be so devastated by the fact their tea is so horrible you must bring your own… that they will relent and bring you some teacups.

Although I’ll bet they still charge you for the tea.

So umm.. that kind of begs the question… why not just order tea, but without the tea? Or pour it out right on the floor while the waiter is standing there, and then graciously fill the cup up with your own tea?

You’ll have to make me tea sometime because first, I only started drinking tea last year and second, I still drink it with hot water with a tea bag, some cold milk and sugar! I didn’t realize I was so scandalous! 😉

I feel like this episode had a … to be continued … attached to it! I hate cliffhangers! 😛

I had thought afterwards that I should have just bought some tea and requested that the cups be brought to me empty. I might just do that next time. “Charge me for the tea, but only bring me the cups because I prefer my tea, thank you.”

I think the AWOOGA horn would be helpful, too. I should add that to my list of things to buy. Good tips, H!

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